There is a common phrase that makes me want to pull my hair out:
“rich people need to give back to society.”
It implies that something was taken.
I’ve created wealth structuring plans for some extremely wealthy individuals. Not one of them stole a dime.
Ignoring central bankers and their cronies, pretty much everyone becomes rich through voluntary exchange. It’s incredibly difficult to become wealthy by stealing from people – that’s usually a great way to end up in prison or dead.
If that seems obvious to you, then congratulations. Your brain is still functional.
“But Jimmy, you just don’t understand” my critics will cry. “Property rights and violence are like… structural and problematic.”
They’ll usually toss in a few more word salad buzzwords like “systemic.” But their point is always the same.
Allow me to translate their nonsense: “Ipso facto, the fact that rich people exist hurts me right in the feels and I want their stuff. Like how many yachts do you even need?”
Yes, it’s all very profound.
But how do they get there?
Simple.
In case you didn’t know, it’s the current year. Evidently, the year in which we are presently living gives you the authority to define words to mean whatever you want.
Hence rich people that became wealthy through voluntary exchange needing to “give back” things they never took in the first place.
It’s astonishing to me that people will voluntarily hand over their money to get some product or service in exchange, then accuse the creator of the product or service of being a thief.
“Sure, now I have a refrigerator that will keep my food fresh for a week… but I mean, what have you done for me lately? You owe me and the rest of society. Crook. Pay up!”
There is a great number of people that genuinely believe that wealthy individuals only contribute to society when they cut a check to Uncle Sam.
Go ahead and ask somebody like that to venture a guess as to what percentage of all income tax collected by the US federal government is paid by people in the 1%.
I bet they’d say around 10%.
Actually, the top 1% pays about 37.5% of all income tax but what difference does that make.
It’s “not enough.”
What a joke.
But here’s the thing – the joke is on them. I’d never work with people that have that kind of attitude. Fortunately, those types would never dream of starting a company so they probably can’t even afford my services. The ones that can afford me pretty much all think that going offshore is only for drug dealers and Fortune 500 companies.
Problem solved. I never have to worry about dealing with them.